Our perspective at VantagePoint

5 easy steps to wasting your money on a lead gen campaign

Two months ago I was invited by a large technology company to complete a short survey for the chance to win a high-capacity and somewhat expensive flash drive. So I answered the survey, realizing that I would probably be hearing from this company incessantly now that I’d confirmed who I was, where I worked, and what my email address was.

But nothing happened. And I forgot about them. Until yesterday.

You see, I received in the mail — my flash drive! But it was the way it came that made the impression.

It was in a plain white padded envelope, with a plain white label obviously printed right out of a database. My job title was “SR. VP/VP/DIRECTOR” — obviously a dump from the category I had self-selected during the survey.

Inside was a crumpled form letter, addressed to “Dear Small Business Professional” and telling me I was a lucky winner of the “enclosed free gift.” (No reference to the pricey premium I had just won, which was bouncing around in an envelope far too big.)

The copy in the letter was to the point and persuasive, but then at the end I was invited to visit a website to learn more — a website that included “https://” and a “.com/” and another word and a dash and another slash and an “index” and an “.html” — nearly 50 characters in all, that they wanted me to type into my browser. (They also allowed me to learn more by phone — by calling a generic toll-free number.)

And the cherry on the top? The signature, from a vice president at this rather large company, was scanned and printed as a 72 dpi jpg.

All in all? A massive marketing fail — they had the opportunity to reel me in, with the personal information I had just provided, to court me and turn me into a customer for life. Instead, they treated me like a number, and did nothing to try to win my business.

So, if you too would like to waste money by giving something away in order to get customer info, and then fail miserably in follow-up of your expensive lead generation campaign, I’ve concluded that I’ve just landed on a 5-step process to easy marketing failure:

1. Be anonymous. I want a plain padded envelope. Don’t bother with a nicely-designed, color label with the company logo on it.

2. Don’t care what I do for a living. I don’t want to be addressed by my correct job title, or acknowledged for the work I put into advancing my career.

3. Don’t use the power of technology. I really didn’t want to be addressed by my first name, or reminded what company I work at. Mail merges are so complicated and hard to do, and I’ll certainly understand.

4. Don’t make it easy for me to learn more. I don’t want a way to contact my salesperson directly. I want a difficult-to-type 50-character URL and a one-size-fits-all toll-free number.

5. Don’t use real ink. You’re busy — you probably had 50 of these to send out. I understand if you just scan your signature as a low-resolution jpg.

And here’s a bonus step: Above all, don’t follow up. I was only after the premium, and had no expectation of ever hearing from you again.

After all, I’ll probably be using your competitor from here on out.

Dave McQuaid

Dave helps keep fresh concepts — both verbal and visual — flowing for VantagePoint Marketing’s clients as vice president for creative and digital. With undergrad and grad degrees in journalism, design and theater from Bob Jones University, Dave has put his education and experience to work for over 100 different clients and has nearly 400 regional and national creative and digital awards to his name. When he’s not doing things fast at the office, he’s doing them fast somewhere else — Dave is an avid runner and road cyclist, a frustrated Playstation racer and a close follower of Formula 1 racing.

Comments

This is a great example of a company that thinks it has a good idea; “if we lure them in with prizes they’ll be instantly hooked!” They don’t seem to take the time to carry out the rest of the marketing strategy.

Above many aspects, customers look for convenience and a personal connection. The current success in social media marketing only proves the importance of building a relationship with customers and putting in that extra we-care effort. Hard selling just won’t do anymore.

Little things add up, and as you’ve just proven it can veer in a negative direction just as easily as a positive one.